ACEA Competitiveness Award 2013 goes to College of Europe graduate

Brussels, 21 June 2013 – The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has awarded its annual College of Europe thesis award to Sabrina Behr, a European Economic Studies Master’s Degree candidate. Ms Behr’s thesis, entitled “ASEAN’s Participation in Global Supply Chains: the Impact of Trade in Intermediates on Growth”, was deemed to be the best College of Europe thesis on a topic of relevance to the European automobile industry.
Ms Behr’s thesis examines the centrality in intermediates trade to the health of global supply chains and upon economic growth. Her work, which focuses on ASEAN, demonstrates that the fragmentation of production and the lengthening of supply chains has allowed for the inclusion of more and more trading partners, allowing these countries to improve their global competitiveness.
Ms Behr’s work is highly relevant to the European automotive industry, given its particularly complex supply chains, as well as in the context of the many ongoing trade negotiations currently being undertaken by the EU. The author examined the effect of the trade in intermediate goods by conducting a thorough literature review and econometric analysis. The results of the econometric study confirmed the findings of the academic literature, showing a positive trade-growth nexus.
Ms Behr concluded that imports in intermediaries exert a significant and positive influence on ASEAN’s growth performance. Ivan Hodac, ACEA Secretary General, applauded the work saying, “given ASEAN’s importance as Europe’s third-largest trading partner, an understanding of the region is vital if European companies are to make the most of the genuine business opportunities to be found there.” “This thesis demonstrates profound understanding and clear-headed thinking about this trade and competitiveness issue. We congratulate Ms Behr on her excellent work.”
Notes for editors
About the ACEA Competitiveness Award
The cooperation between ACEA and the College of Europe is rooted in the mutual conviction that close understanding is essential between industry, business, academia and the EU institutions, many of which recruit from the College of Europe. The annual ACEA Competitiveness Award, now in its eighth year, awards a College of Europe student for a thesis that shows academic excellence and investigates a dimension of EU regulation and industrial competitiveness without necessarily being specifically about automotive industry.
About ACEA
- The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) represents the 14 major Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler Truck, Ferrari, Ford of Europe, Honda Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, Iveco Group, JLR, Mercedes-Benz, Renault Group, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo Group
- Visit www.acea.auto for more information about ACEA, and follow us on www.twitter.com/ACEA_auto or www.linkedin.com/company/ACEA/
Contact:
- Cara McLaughlin, Communications Director, cm@acea.auto, +32 485 88 66 47
- Ben Kennard, Content Editor and Press Manager, bk@acea.auto, +32 2 738 73 17
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About the EU automobile industry
- 12.9 million Europeans work in the automotive sector
- 8.3% of all manufacturing jobs in the EU
- €392.2 billion in tax revenue for European governments
- €101.9 billion trade surplus for the European Union
- Over 7% of EU GDP generated by the auto industry
- €59.1 billion in R&D spending annually, 31% of EU total